Pension dashboards: valuation data and the dashboard

For LGPS funds in England and Wales, actuaries are hard at work on the triennial valuations. Data queries are being asked and answered to help identify funding levels and contribution rates. For Scottish funds, they’ve got all of this to look forward to in the year ahead. 

So, what does this mean for pension dashboards? 

Where there are a few members with queries in their records, particularly those at larger employers, you might have heard these described as 'edge cases' and been assured these records won’t materially impact the valuation results. Although this may be true, these records do matter for the dashboards. 

One thing the valuation is very good at is identifying records that need further investigation. You might not see that as today’s problem, Officers have a lot on their plates - but it is tomorrow's problem - and, unlike the popular saying, tomorrow is going to come. 

When the dashboards go live it feels almost inevitable that the members with quirks in their records are going to be the ones to use it. The members where you only have a temporary National Insurance Number, or where you’ve got a placeholder date of birth. Effectively, the members it'll be most difficult to match to your records. 

As part of the preparation for the launch of pension dashboard, all the affected schemes will need to have a matching policy. This identifies which of the various data types you’ll be using to determine if someone sending a ‘Find Request’ has a benefit entitlement, or not. For the matching data you adopt, this means you need to be confident the information you hold is accurate. Common examples of data which might not be fully updated are: 

• temporary National Insurance Numbers
• addresses 
• contact information such as email addresses.

Other record-keeping requirements 

There's other record keeping requirements you’ll need to keep on top of. For example, The Pensions Regulator could ask you for details about all the complaints you’ve received about the dashboard in the last 6 years and how often your connection has failed. There’s also the additional data protection requirements - you’ll need to delete information you received from individuals who aren’t members, or who fail to provide further information to you when a partial match is made, and you're unable to confirm if they're a member or not. 

So, the valuation process will be helpful. It'll help you identify where your data quality is lacking and help inform the decision about which matching data you will adopt. As your data is cleansed, you’ll be able to reconsider and potentially widen the number of matching data types you're willing to accept.  

Keeping your matching criteria under review is recommended.  

You’ll need to keep a record of all the changes you make but it’s important not to stand still. Data is so important to so many aspects of running a pension scheme that anything which pushes funds to improve data standards should be embraced! 

If you have any questions, on anything covered in this blog, please get in touch.

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